Releases
'The Day He Arrives,' by South Korean Master Filmmaker Hong Sang-soo, Opens Exclusive San Francisco Engagement May 4 at SF Film Society Cinema
New Wave Feel Imbues Comedy Involving a Frustrated Would-Be Artist, Generational Inertia, Male Misbehavior and Many, Many Bottles of Soju
3/29/2012
The Day He Arrives (Book chon bang hyang, South Korea 2011), a self-effacing, inward-looking comedy written and directed by the South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo, opens an exclusive San Francisco premiere engagement May 4 at SF Film Society Cinema (1746 Post Street).
High Modernist master of contemporary South Korean cinema Hong Sang-soo returns, and then returns again, to his cherished tableaux of endlessly looped and ever loopier time travels in his latest tale of Seoul and its sad sack cineastes. A black-and-white variation on Hong’s now-trademark twice-told tales about increasingly drunken filmmakers (this time incarnated by actor Yu Jun-sang) embarking on doomed journeys to reunite with mistreated old flames, the movie is both a comedy of errors (men rarely look more foolish than under Hong’s withering eye) and a nightmare vision of a tormented creator ten times darker than Barton Fink. For long-standing Hong fans, many of The Day He Arrives’s eccentric and occasionally surrealist mannerisms may seem all but folkloric: characters who double one another or scenes that recur with varying conclusions. Even the flaky Euro-zoom-ins Hong has been using since 2004’s Woman Is the Future of Man now feel like auteurist flourishes, though they’re even funnier this time around, a bit like the zoom-ins in Buñuel’s final films, tightening in on characters as they begin to narrate us off on some new plot tangent, never to return. Except that Hong’s characters always do, over and over again, to hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking effect. Written by Hong Sang-soo. Photographed by Kim Hyung-koo. With Yu Jun-sang, Kim Sang-joong, Kim Bok-yung, Song Sun-mi. In Korean with subtitles. 79 min. Distributed by Cinema Guild.
Watch the trailer here.
Showtimes 3:00, 5:00, 7:00, 9:00 pm
Tickets $9 for SFFS members, $11 general, $10 senior/student/disabled. Box office opens April 2 online at sffs.org and in person at SF Film Society Cinema.
To request an interview contact hhart@sffs.org.
To request screeners contact bproctor@sffs.org.
For photos and press materials visit sffs.org/pressdownloads.
At SF Film Society Cinema, the stylish state-of-the art theater located in the New People building at 1746 Post Street (Webster/Buchanan) in Japantown, the San Francisco Film Society offers its acclaimed exhibition, education and filmmaker services programs and events on a daily year-round basis. For complete up-to-date information on all SFFS Cinema programming, including buying tickets, visit sffs.org/cinema.
Upcoming San Francisco Film Society programs
Through March 29: Sound of Noise
Opening March 30: House of Pleasures
April 3: Qarantina
April 6: Character Comes First: Costume Design in the Movies
Opening April 6: This Is Not a Film
April 10: SFFS Film Arts Forum: Beyond Film School
Opening April 13: The Turin Horse
April 19–May 3: 55th San Francisco International Film Festival
San Francisco Film Society
Building on a legacy of more than 50 years of bringing the best in world cinema to the Bay Area, the San Francisco Film Society is a national leader in exhibition, education and filmmaker services.
The Film Society presents 365 days of exhibition each year, reaching a total audience of 130,000 people. Its acclaimed education program introduces international, independent and documentary cinema and media literacy to more than 15,000 teachers and students and presents more than 100 classes and workshops annually. Through Filmmaker360, the filmmaker services program, essential creative and business services and funding totaling millions of dollars are provided to deserving filmmakers of all levels.
The Film Society seeks to elevate all aspects of film culture, offering a wide range of activities that engage emotions, inspire action, change perceptions and advance knowledge. A 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation, it is largely donor and member supported. Patronage and membership provides discounted prices, access to grants and residencies, private events and a wealth of other benefits.
For more information visit sffs.org.
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High Modernist master of contemporary South Korean cinema Hong Sang-soo returns, and then returns again, to his cherished tableaux of endlessly looped and ever loopier time travels in his latest tale of Seoul and its sad sack cineastes. A black-and-white variation on Hong’s now-trademark twice-told tales about increasingly drunken filmmakers (this time incarnated by actor Yu Jun-sang) embarking on doomed journeys to reunite with mistreated old flames, the movie is both a comedy of errors (men rarely look more foolish than under Hong’s withering eye) and a nightmare vision of a tormented creator ten times darker than Barton Fink. For long-standing Hong fans, many of The Day He Arrives’s eccentric and occasionally surrealist mannerisms may seem all but folkloric: characters who double one another or scenes that recur with varying conclusions. Even the flaky Euro-zoom-ins Hong has been using since 2004’s Woman Is the Future of Man now feel like auteurist flourishes, though they’re even funnier this time around, a bit like the zoom-ins in Buñuel’s final films, tightening in on characters as they begin to narrate us off on some new plot tangent, never to return. Except that Hong’s characters always do, over and over again, to hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking effect. Written by Hong Sang-soo. Photographed by Kim Hyung-koo. With Yu Jun-sang, Kim Sang-joong, Kim Bok-yung, Song Sun-mi. In Korean with subtitles. 79 min. Distributed by Cinema Guild.
Watch the trailer here.
Showtimes 3:00, 5:00, 7:00, 9:00 pm
Tickets $9 for SFFS members, $11 general, $10 senior/student/disabled. Box office opens April 2 online at sffs.org and in person at SF Film Society Cinema.
To request an interview contact hhart@sffs.org.
To request screeners contact bproctor@sffs.org.
For photos and press materials visit sffs.org/pressdownloads.
At SF Film Society Cinema, the stylish state-of-the art theater located in the New People building at 1746 Post Street (Webster/Buchanan) in Japantown, the San Francisco Film Society offers its acclaimed exhibition, education and filmmaker services programs and events on a daily year-round basis. For complete up-to-date information on all SFFS Cinema programming, including buying tickets, visit sffs.org/cinema.
Upcoming San Francisco Film Society programs
Through March 29: Sound of Noise
Opening March 30: House of Pleasures
April 3: Qarantina
April 6: Character Comes First: Costume Design in the Movies
Opening April 6: This Is Not a Film
April 10: SFFS Film Arts Forum: Beyond Film School
Opening April 13: The Turin Horse
April 19–May 3: 55th San Francisco International Film Festival
San Francisco Film Society
Building on a legacy of more than 50 years of bringing the best in world cinema to the Bay Area, the San Francisco Film Society is a national leader in exhibition, education and filmmaker services.
The Film Society presents 365 days of exhibition each year, reaching a total audience of 130,000 people. Its acclaimed education program introduces international, independent and documentary cinema and media literacy to more than 15,000 teachers and students and presents more than 100 classes and workshops annually. Through Filmmaker360, the filmmaker services program, essential creative and business services and funding totaling millions of dollars are provided to deserving filmmakers of all levels.
The Film Society seeks to elevate all aspects of film culture, offering a wide range of activities that engage emotions, inspire action, change perceptions and advance knowledge. A 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation, it is largely donor and member supported. Patronage and membership provides discounted prices, access to grants and residencies, private events and a wealth of other benefits.
For more information visit sffs.org.
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